Friday, May 29, 2015

BREAKING NEWS !!! STARK DEMS & 7 DEMOCRAT CANTON CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS (ALSO OHIO DEMOCRATIC PARTY) FILE PROTEST TO STARK BOE ON TOM BERNABEI "INDEPENDENT" FILING FOR MAYOR OF CANTON

UPDATED/REVISED AT 09:05 A.M. MONDAY, JUNE 1ST

CORRECTION:

Councilmember-at-Large Jimmy Babcock has advised the SCPR that he DID NOT sign Bernabei's petition as The Report cited fellow councilman Bill Smuckler as saying.  

Accordingly, the SCPR has revised that part of the text of this blog originally referring to the Smuckler report.

It appears now that The Report may have misunderstood Smuckler's statement about Babcock.  

If such is the case, the SCPR certainly apologizes for possibly having misinterpreted Councilman Smuckler's remarks.

STORY FIRST POSTED AT 2:57 P.M. ABOUT 45 MINUTES BEFORE ANY OTHER STARK COUNTY MEDIA OUTLET

WEEKEND UPDATES:

Saturday, 8:00 a.m.

Why weren't Councilpersons Hawk (Ward 1), Babcock (at-large) and Smuckler (at-large) among the Canton City Council protesters to Tom Bernabei's as an "independent" candidacies?

Answer:

Rather obvious, when you think about it.

As pointed out by Member Smuckler in a conversation earlier today with the SCPR; he, and Hawk signed Bernabei's petition.

As to Member Babcock, the SCPR has no answer as to why he did not join in on the Stark Dems' protest.

Smuckler also signed - there being no question about it (the SCPR think) in terms of Board of Elections certification on June 17th - the petition "running as an "independent" of Councilman Richard Hart (at-Large).

Hart, a former Republican, ran and won (somewhat surprisingly) as an "independent" in November, 2013 when Democrat "Expected to Win" Roland K. Burns, III became a media controversial figure over some rental property issues he encountered with Canton government.










Friday, 6:00 p.m

SCPR Blog LINK (March 14, 2014) to prior Bernabei involvement in McTigue as Stark Board of Elections attorney for George T. Maier when Maier's certification as a candidate in 2014 was at issue.

Commissioners video, including Bernabei, of course, on the question of whether or the Stark Commmissioners would appoint McTigue at $8,000 of county taxpayer funds to retain McTigue for Maier



UPDATED:  4:02 PM

CHECK BACK 
FOR CONTINUING UPDATES 
OVER THE WEEKEND



LINK to McTigue website.

SCPR Note:  Initially Bernabei was considering hiring locally prominent attorney Allen Schulman (president of Canton City Council).
  • Reports have persisted that Schulman was being pressured by various local Democrats not to get involved in representing Bernabei because of alleged conflicts in interest in that Schulman as indicated above is president of Canton City Council and as such works Healy who is the Democratic Party nominee (endorsed by the Ohio Democratic Party in the Healy/Perez [Canton treasurer]) for Canton mayor in the upcoming November general election).
  • Schulman denies that anyone connected with the Healy campaign or the Stark/Ohio Democratic Parties put pressure on him not to represent Bernabei, and, moreover:
    • Schulman says that had there been such pressure that would have prompted him to take on representing Bernabei.
    • Schulman says that he decided not to take on representing Bernabei in deference to Don McTigue whom he thinks is the foremost lawyer in all of Ohio on Ohio election law.
A copy of a press release from Chairman Phil Giavasis is the first post on this SCPR "breaking news" blog reporting the filing of a protest with the Stark County Board of Elections seven of twelve members of Canton City Council, the Stark County Democratic Party and the Ohio Democratic Party.

Part of the protest is supported by excerpts from the following Stark County Political Report videotaped interview with Bernabei conducted on Wednesday, May 6, 2015.



Readers can click on the "Click here to view the filing" to go to Dropbox to see the actual filing, or, immediately following the press release the SCPR has uploaded the document to Google Docs which makes the filing document available in pdf format immediately below the press release.



A copy of the actual filing.

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